Food and World Religion

Why do Muslims and Jews abstain from eating pork? What do various foods symbolize in world religions? What is the role of fasting in spirituality? Explore the fascinating relationship with food, eating, and food prohibitions in several major world religions. Approximately half the material is drawn from Asian religious traditions (mainly Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism). The rest comes from the three Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Course readings include a range of religious texts, ethnographies, legal texts, histories, films, and ritual studies.